Sunday Nite Ritual

Waking up in South Jersey is occasionally a weird thing. Driving down seemed almost surreal, but that might have been due to being half asleep since I decided to make the journey in the middle of the nite. So I was a bit confused when my eyes opened and were greeted by blue skies, the ocean sparkling in the distance. As soon as I saw Jon’s smile, I knew that everything was alright.

We ate breakfast in bed while watching Seabiscuit, sharing bowls and this classic from yours truly: “Is it too early for pistachios?” It was a really good movie, and then Jon pops in The Greatest Shown on Earth. The term “sawdust in my veins” is adopted from a line in the film and is something that we both connect with.

Abandoned the bed around two in the afternoon and continued to smoke while writing. Lunch was skipped so dinner was started early. He made breaded chicken cutlets with a side of asparagus and corn; we sat down to eat around five and it was absolutely delicious. There was a small break before tearing into the lemon crunch pie and downing strong cups of Irish coffee.

Digestion followed for the next few hours, but we returned to the evil pie and nearly polished the entire thing off. Then we pried into our second bag of pistachios, the first having been eaten the previous nite and earlier in the morning. Retreated to the living room to keep ourselves occupied from consuming the rest of the nuts.

Thus the Sunday Nite Ritual commenced with King of the Hill. VCR was set to record the Simpsons and we switched the channel to HBO for Six Feet Under, the Sopranos [which just gets better and better] and Deadwood [which I actually stayed awake to watch], while munching on the above mentioned pistachios.

Later on we headed down to the beach to do some star gazing while smoking a blunt. The ocean was dark, making it hard to determine where it ended and the nite sky began. We talked about the shows we had just watched, laughing about things the characters had said or done, blankets draped over our shoulders super hero style with a cup of coffee in hand.

It might not seem much like a ritual to some, but there comes a time when you learn to cherish all the little moments in life, especially when they are shared with someone who fills you with unending happiness.

Spawned from the Wilds of Weird New Jersey, my evolution is ongoing as I travel the winding road of life, taking adventures as they come. My passion lies in being a preservationist and historian of American variety arts: circus, sideshow, burlesque, vaudeville, etc. Creativity is a specialty and expressed through various artistic mediums such as writing, painting, collage, photography, body modification and fabricating custom hair art.